Posted on 05/11/2009 1:48:48 PM PDT by NevadaPolicyResearchInstitute
Over the last decade the various teachers unions across the country have expanded their operations into the courtroom. Unions have threatened, and even successfully litigated, "adequacy" lawsuits across the country, to force states to increase funds to K-12 education.
On Tuesday, Lynn Warne, president of the Nevada State Education Association, threatened such an adequacy lawsuit.
But what exactly is "adequate" funding?
The National Center for Education Statistics reports that during the 1959-60 school year, Nevada spent $430 per pupil. By the 1999-2000 school year, Nevada was spending $6,145 per pupil. After adjusting for inflation, Nevada spent about 146 percent more per pupil in 2000 than it did in 1960.
Despite this drastic increase in funding, Nevada System of Higher Education Chancellor Jim Rogers recently lamented the decline in educational quality during that span:
What then has made the Nevada education system go from good to average to less than average since the 1960s when Nevada's high schools won multiple awards for being among the best in the nation?
Inadequate spending certainly hasn't been the problem. We've increased per-pupil spending even further since 2000. The Clark County School District, for example, spends 15 percent more per pupil today than in 2000. But to some, of course, whatever we spend is never enough.
The claim that Nevada funds education inadequately is false. But even beyond that, the per-pupil figures reported by the education establishment don't paint an accurate picture of how much is actually spent to educate a student in the Silver State. Simply put, Nevada's policymakers calculate per-pupil spending by excluding hundreds of millions of dollars in education-related expenses.
Not only do they exclude very costly capital projects and debt service funds, but they also don't count dollars spent on federal programs, food services and special service funds. The latter - to name just a few - can include classroom-size reduction, all-day kindergarten, special-education programs, reading programs, mentoring programs, advanced-placement programs, drop-out prevention programs, professional development and teacher bonuses.
The Nevada Policy Research Institute recently looked at the total expenditures that each school district reported to the state and then divided by the student enrollment. Average per-pupil spending for the 2008-09 school year in Nevada was $13,052. Around the state, spending ranged from $10,899 in Churchill County to $49,551 in Eureka County. Clark County School District spent $13,387 per pupil, and Washoe County, the second-largest school district, spent $11,393 per student. The full report, titled "Funding Fantasies: Nevada K-12 education spends more than you think," is available at www.npri.org.
In total, for the 2008-09 school year, Nevada's school districts budgeted $5.4 billion from their various sources to spend on K-12 education. Unfortunately, neither the state nor the various school districts make a strong effort to determine how effective the spending is. In fact, state legislators and school district administrators mandate that many programs be funded regardless of their impact. This top-down, centralized approach to public education is ineffective, wasteful and stifles innovation. It does not, however, justify hiding the true cost of education in the Silver State.
We should ask the NEA if seed corn tastes better than the regular variety....
Liberals are all for global this and global that. They even want to subvert the Constitution to international law. So how about the teachers bowing to international spending per student and taking a huge pay cut to align American school spending with the countries which are producing students who actually learn things.
According to the California Department of Education the average per pupil expense for the 07-08 school year was $8,594. This puts California just below the national average of around $9,000 per student, and well below states like New York and New Jersey who average around $12,000 per student.
As for other countries who are rated higher educationally than the United States:
* Korea (ranked 1st in scientific literacy and 2nd in mathematic literacy): spends around $4500 per student for primary education and $6500 per student for secondary education.
* Japan (1st in mathematical literacy and 2nd in scientific literacy): spends around $6700 per student for primary education and around $8000 per student for secondary education.
* Finland (1st in reading literacy and 3rd in scientific literacy): around $5500 per student for primary education and around $7000 per student for secondary education.
* New Zealand (3rd in reading literacy and 3rd in mathematical literacy) around $5000 per student for primary education and around $6000 per student for secondary education.
The answer to where the money is going is simple: ADMINISTRATION.
My wife’s middle school has 3 bureaucrat layers between her and the principal.
HISD (Houston Independent School District) has 3.7 additional employees per classrom teacher.
Administrators are frequently doctorates (in education) and are compensated accordingly - yet many have trouble finding their rear ends with both hands.
Conduct a wholesale firing on non-teaching personnel and you’ll quickly find out where the dough is going. And generate a huge surplus to boot.
Exactly. I knew the answer, as did you, after the first sentence!
My wife works as a teacher aide (we never needed aides when I went to school!) here in Florida and we have so many bureaucrats in the schools and over at the admin buildings (yes, buildingS), it's ridiculous.
They're letting teachers go left and right, but admin staff? I don't know, you can't get any info on that stuff!
There is no end to judicial abuse. If black robes can determine the level of taxes, why bother electing legislators?
Funny how California spends just below the national average per student, but California teachers salaries, on average, are some of the highest in the nation.
I didn’t know that about the foreign education spending. Pretty incredible. Thanks for that link.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.